Review by Booklist Review
In this outstanding, gothic "Cinderella" retelling from the Hugo-nominated author of the Last Binding trilogy, Ella has been dead for six years when the crown prince invites every unattached young woman in the kingdom to a series of balls at which he will select a bride. As a ghost tethered to her house and forced to obey the malicious whims of the stepfamily responsible for her death, Ella is invisible to all humans outside her household. Her only friends are Quaint, a charm-selling fairy who owns a stall at the market, and the renowned foreign scholar of hauntings whom Ella secretly corresponds with and who has no idea that Ella is herself a ghost. When Ella barters with Quaint for a pair of shoes that will grant her the ability to take corporeal form for the three nights of the balls, she only wants to bask in a few nights of feeling alive again, but a chance encounter with the prince changes everything. This novella impresses from its chilling opening to its inspired, polyamorous take on happily ever after. Lovers of fairy-tale retellings, gothic fantasy, and fierce queer joy will be enchanted.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Marske (Swordcrossed) rekindles the fire of "Cinderella" in this gothic, magic-stuffed retelling. Ella is supposed to inherit her father's house. Instead, when her stepmother's murder plot goes to plan, the house inherits her: she becomes its resident ghost. Trapped and forced to clean and repair anything amiss, Ella tries to gain freedom from her stepfamily through researching arcane magic, trying her hand at trickery, and even questioning a dangerous fairy. When Crown Prince Jule announces a three-night ball to find his future queen, cruel and beautiful Greta, the younger of Ella's stepsisters, determines she will win him at any cost. Ella, who just wants three nights to enjoy the life that was taken from her, makes a fairy bargain to allow her to attend the ball in corporeal form--putting her right between Greta and what Greta wants most just as Ella realizes she longs for the same thing. The last time Ella got in the way of this family, she died for it--and her being dead already won't stop them from trying to kill her again. Marske uses handfuls of familiar tropes to construct a story that stands alone, as strong, beautiful, and clever as its heroine. Fans of T. Kingfisher will love it. Agent: Diana Fox, Fox Literary. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
At 16, Ella had her whole life ahead of her, until she was murdered. Now she is a ghost trapped in the house where she died. Worse, the only people who can see her are her stepmother and stepsisters, who force her to do menial tasks; if Ella refuses, she suffers via damage to her home. When Ella finds a way to get beyond the front door, she realizes that her freedom is limited: she is invisible to living people and ends up back on the stairwell where she died at midnight. Yet when a fairy charm-seller actually sees Ella, a tentative friendship leads to a bargain Ella is willing to risk everything for: three nights in physical form, a form that can dance and touch. Risking attending the same ball as her family is one thing, but meeting the prince and discovering truths unknown? Ella believes it is worth everything. VERDICT Marske (Swordcrossed) presents an incredibly unique and shadowy "Cinderella" retelling, full of tenderness and whimsy and featuring a heroine who cannot help but haunt readers. Immediately put this in the hands of those who liked Alix E. Harrow's "Fractured Fables" series.--Kristi Chadwick
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In this ghostly fairy-tale retelling, a spectral Cinderella struggles to stay corporeal enough to make it to the ball. Sixteen-year-old Ella is a ghost haunting her magical house as a grudge against her murderous stepmother and abusive stepsisters. Being more house than girl compels Ella to slavishly follow her family's orders in a manner that calls back to Gail Carson Levine'sElla Enchanted, with the added obstacle that she can't pass beyond the house's foundation. Despite her limited life experience, Ella is no naïf, inventively expanding her world through mail-order books and distant correspondence while surviving her stepsisters' unique tortures. As the years pass and people move on, she even discovers a loophole for exploring the city and meeting new faces--like canny fairy Quaint, with whom she barters for an enchanted solution to attend the prince's ball. The familiar story elements--dress, glass slippers, midnight curfew--are given new life and interpretations, but there is no simple spell to resurrect Ella. Instead, she must carve out new ways of existing in the world and making people see her on her terms. The flesh-and-blood characters are equally compelling: thoughtful revelations subvert the "doting father" and "wicked stepmother" archetypes, while the prince contends with a well-meaning fairy curse that reduces him to a dangerous object of desire. A setting in which both bisexuality and polyamory are woven into the social fabric means more alluring opportunities for Ella's postmortem romance, which Marske accomplishes with her usual aplomb. Marske unflinchingly explores the ways limited mobility and accessibility can erode one's sense of self, inspired by her own experiences of being housebound due to long Covid, and how to triumphantly cross those thresholds. Cinderella finds her happily-ever-afterlife in this sharp addition to the fairy-tale canon. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
